Chapter 41 - The Supreme Sword Tactic

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

“Can you only learn one kind of martial art?” Yang Dingtian was surprised.

“Yes, because one’s martial art determines one’s Xuan energy path as well as the nature of one’s attack. This is the reason martial artists can only learn one type of martial art. However, after becoming a great Xuan Instructor Martial Artist, you will be able to learn many types of Xuan skills,” Yanyan explained. “Martial arts determine how high a person’s cultivation is. Xuan skills determine how strong a person’s attack is. Martial arts are the foundation. Xuan skills are the branches.”

Then, Yanyan picked up a secret scroll. “This is the Fire Demon Sword Tactic, an eighth rank beginner secret scroll. It has strong destructive capabilities. One’s Xuan energy automatically turns destructive. As soon as the enemy is struck, he will be hurt continuously.”

After she finished explaining, Yanyan looked at Yang Dingtian to see if he was interested.

Yang Dingtian took the secret scroll and closed his eyes to look for a connection. After a while, he put it back.

Yanyan picked up another scroll and introduced, “This is Mad Prison Breaker Knife Tactic, eighth rank medium class. It has strong penetrating power. It’s mysterious and unobtrusive.”

Yang Dingtian said, “I want to practice swords, so only show me sword tactics.”

“Why?” Yanyan asked. “Other weapons should be fine too, right?”

“Because I want to cultivate the Sword Soul,” Yang Dingtian answered. He recalled the moment when Ximen Wuya summoned the Sword Soul. It was so strong even though it was merely at the nascent stage.

“Ah…” Yanyan yelled in surprise. “Sword soul is the king of martial souls. It’s extremely difficult. There are only three people in the world that have been able to cultivate the Sword Soul. Have you really thought it through?”

“Which three?” Yang Dingtian asked.

“My daddy, Dongfang Sect Head, and the Ying Yang Sect Head. Even Zhu Qingzhu didn’t manage to cultivate the Sword Soul. In the world, hundreds of people want to cultivate the martial soul, but less than half of them have succeeded. For a normal martial soul, you just have to catch a powerful beast and can cultivate it immediately. That’s why many Xuan Martial Artist elites have martial souls to assist them in their battles. However, if it were to be a Sword Soul, I’m afraid that even Guru-level top elites might not be able to cultivate it. Many can’t even prepare all the ingredients required to make a Soul Sword.”

“Is it difficult to get the ingredients to make a Soul Sword?” Yang Dingtian asked.

“Sword Soul lets a sword gain life and a soul. To construct the best body, Yang-type materials are needed. The best kind is Bloody Black Gold. At least 99 pieces of Bloody Black Gold are needed. Just merely collecting these 99 pieces would require a martial artist to walk tens of thousands of kilometers and spend dozens of years to find them. Furthermore, the construction of the Soul Sword has to meet certain timing criteria. You might even need preciously rare Sea Soul Crystals. If you’re unlucky, you may not be able to find all these ingredients in your entire lifetime.”

Yang Dingtian sucked in a cold breath and asked in his heart, “Master, is this true?”

“It’s true,” Dongfang Niemie replied. “I found enough Bloody Black Gold after spending almost a decade searching. As for Xuan Vein Essence and Sea Soul Crystal, those completely depend on God’s will. That’s why cultivating a Soul Sword can be considered as one of the most difficult tasks in the world. It’s even harder than reaching the Guru level.”

Yang Ding was stunned. “How powerful is the Sword Soul?”

“The king of martial souls!” Dongfang Niemie declared. Whoever manages to cultivate a Sword Soul will stand above the entire world. Your Uncle Ximen’s Sword Soul was only at the nascent stage and was already so strong. In another ten years, no one would have been able to fight him. This was so all because he chose the toughest path, which is cultivating a Sword Soul, the strongest kind of martial soul.”

Yang Dingtian instantly became excited.

“You don’t have much time, and it will be even more difficult to cultivate a Sword Soul. As a result, cultivating a normal martial soul will make you stronger faster. You have the Nine Yang God Veins so you would be able to cultivate a powerful beast martial soul. But…, if you don’t cultivate the Sword Soul, you will never be able to reach the peak of this world. You would never be able to kill Zhu Qingzhu. You would never be able to beat Dongfang Bingling because she had also chosen the hardest path. She also chose to cultivate the Sword Soul!”

“I know what I should do already, Master,” Yang Dingtian declared.

He looked at Yanyan and said, “I choose to learn the sword, so I only need to consider sword tactics.”

Yanyan looked at him for a moment before saying, “You are insane just like my daddy.”

Then, she walked to the second shelf and picked out one of the sword tactics.

This was an eighth rank medium class sword tactic, Soul Devouring Sword Tactic!

“This sword tactic has the most mysterious energy. It is almost as pure as the sky. It is a lethal weapon against dark demonic opponents,” Yanyan explained.

Yang Dingtian immediately rejected the scroll, so Yanyan placed the secret scroll back. Yang Dingtian made this decision because none of his present or future opponents belong to evil factions, whether it was Cloud Sky City’s elite, Dongfang Bingling, or even the Xuan Sky Sect.

Yanyan approached the last shelf. “You didn’t like the previous scroll, so we’re now left with just this one. It’s the only choice you have left.”

“Eighth rank top class secret scroll, Chaotic Heaven Destroyer Sword Tactic! This is the most solid secret scroll. It is capable of piercing anything. It is extremely overbearing and has King-like vibes.”

Yanyan almost used all the words she knew just to describe this secret scroll.

“You don’t like any of the others, so you can only choose this one,” Yanyan said as she passed the secret scroll to Yang Dingtian.

Yang Dingtian took the secret scroll and immediately felt a vast, powerful energy. It instantly numbed his entire body, causing his Xuan Veins to feel extremely thirsty.

However, Yang Dingtian still had some reservations. He looked outside, towards the ninth rank martial arts room, which contained Cloud Sky City’s top secret scroll.

“Which secret scroll did Uncle Ximen learn?” asked Yang Dingtian.

Yanyan answered, “He practiced the only ninth rank secret scroll in Cloud Sky City, Hardship Overcoming Sword Tactic!”

Yang Dingtian also asked, “Which rank is the greatest secret scroll in the world?”

“Ninth rank,” Yanyan replied. “The world’s highest ranked Martial Art secret scroll is ninth rank. However, there aren’t many in the world. Even the Yin Yang Sect only has no more than three such scrolls. Cloud Sky City only has one.”

Yang Dingtian said, “I want to go see this ninth rank secret scroll, the Hardship Overcoming Sword Tactic.”

Yanyan tool a deep breath and said bitterly, “It was stolen. Five years ago, someone stole it.”

Yang Dingtian immediately saw a connection. Yanyan was injured five years ago, causing her to slowly lose all of her cultivation. Cloud Sky City’s one and only ninth rank secret scroll was also stolen five years ago. Could there be a connection between these two incidents?

This topic seemed to cause Yanyan’s heart to hurt. She didn’t want to dwell on the subject. Instead, she directly changed the topic. “My daddy only has eighth rank medium class Xuan veins, but he still chose to learn the ninth rank medium class secret scroll, jumping one full rank. As a result, he was almost pushed into a dead end. For the first few years, he made no progress. Even his talent was nearly wasted.”

“You don’t have any other choice. This Chaotic Heaven Destroyer Swords Tactic is already the strongest secret scroll left in Cloud Sky City.”

Yang Dingtian took a deep breath and asked, “What is the strongest I can become if I were to learn this eighth rank top class Chaotic Heaven Destroyer Sword Tactic?”

“Martial Saint!” Yanyan replied. “Yang Cloud Sky, the first-generation Cloud Sky City Lord had given up on the ninth rank secret scroll. He chose this eighth rank top class Chaotic Heaven Destroyer Sword Tactic. He eventually became a martial saint and was the last martial saint in the world.”

“So strong?” Yang Dingtian didn’t dare believe it. “He became a Martial Saint with just an eighth rank top class secret scroll?”

Yanyan said, “Anyways, only Yang Cloud Sky has done this. When he saw the Chaotic Heaven Destroyer Sword Tactic, he couldn’t put it down. It was as if it had been tailor-made for him.”

Yang Ding took a deep breath, filled with respect towards this ancient figure. This is the martial art that Martial Saint Yang Cloud Sky learned. If he could use this sword to become a Martial Saint, why couldn’t he?

“Have you finished considering? Once you decide, you can’t go back,” Yanyan warned.

Yang Dingtian grabbed the scroll. “Once I choose my secret scroll, how do I study it?”

Yanyan answered, “Open it and insert your Xuan energy into the scroll. After your Xuan energy enters the secret scroll, it will mix with the words. After the Xuan energy finishes traveling through the secret scroll, it will bring the essence of this martial art back into your body. Then, you will be able to start learning this martial art.”

So mysterious? The martial art was actually not recorded with words or pictures.

Yang Dingtian took a breath and opened the Chaotic Heaven Destroyer Sword Tactic scroll. It was made out of a special material. There really were no words or pictures printed on it. There were only very, very complex lines, some of which were depressions, some of which were protrusions. These lines were extremely complex and were divided into several layers. They were many times more complex than the watermarks printed on Earth’s banknotes.

“Master, where did these secret scrolls come from? Were they written by the strongest men hundreds of years ago?” asked Yang Dingtian.

“No, they were dug out of the ground. They were written by extremely strong elites in the ancient world. A huge disaster had destroyed the whole world, erasing most of those ancient legacies. These secret scrolls were buried underground during that time,” Dongfang Niemie explained.

“Disaster? What disaster?” Yang Dingtian asked.

Dongfang Niemie narrated, “A few thousand years ago, or more than 10,000 years ago, there was once a calamity. The entire world was completely destroyed. The entire tradition of martial arts completely collapsed. The chaotic continent was destroyed. The earth sank into the oceans. Part of the oceans became land. No one knows why such a calamity occurred, but almost all of the strongest secret scrolls were legacies from those ancient times.”

Yang Dingtian was shocked by this revelation. Since those in ancient times were so powerful, what kind of energy could actually destroy the world?

Whatever the case, the Chaotic Heaven Destroyer Sword Tactic that he held came from ancient times and was not ordinary.

Immediately, Yang Dingtian placed his palm on the secret scroll and focused, preparing to insert his Xuan energy. Yanyan, on the other hand, was holding her breath. She looked at Yang Dingtian with worry and excitement.

Seconds passed. Then, minutes.

Yang Dingtian, who had already made his choice, ended up not inserting his Xuan energy. Yanyan didn’t understand. Even Dongfang Niemie was confused. “Son, haven’t you already chosen this secret scroll? Why didn’t you insert your Xuan energy?”

“I don’t know, Master.” Yang Dingtian admitted. “I am obviously very ambitious, and this is already the highest grade secret scroll in Cloud Sky City. My heart is filled with the desire to learn, but I just can’t take that last step. I couldn’t feel the natural fit that Yang Cloud Sky felt when he saw this secret scroll. There was no sparkling feeling.”

Yang Dingtian could not help but ask, “Master, what secret scroll is Dongfang Bingling learning?”

Dongfang Niemie was silent for a moment. Then, he said, “The world’s most supreme, ninth rank top class secret scroll, the Supreme Alpaca Demon Sword Tactic! In the past 400 years, she was the only one able to learn this martial art.”

Yang Dingtian once again sucked in a cold breath.

The Sword Tactic that Dongfang Bingling was learning was three times harder than this Sword Tactic. It may even be much harder.

However, in Cloud Sky City, the Chaotic Heaven Destroyer Sword Tactic was already the highest secret scroll left. What should Yang Dingtian do?

“Son, follow your instincts,” Dongfang Niemie slowly advised.

Seeing that Yang Dingtian had not yet started, Yanyan could not help but ask, “What are you waiting for?”

Taking a deep breath, Yang Dingtian made a decision and immediately rolled up the secret scroll and put it back on the shelf. “Are there any other secret scrolls? For example, in the tenth unlabeled room? What are the secret scrolls stored in that room?”